young god
by wolfypuppypiles
Summary: Barry Allen is De-aged mentally to his twelve year old self and if you thing looking after a super speeding tween is easy you'd be wrong. So very wrong.
1. Chapter 1

"Barry?!" Caitlin yelled into the mic again, desperately hoping she would soon hear the voice of Central City's beloved superhero.

They had been hunting a meta-human whose ability they hadn't figured out yet. They knew that she was a bank robber, typical meta-human occupation, that left her victims in a strange state of confusion that they hadn't figured out yet. Oh and she was twelve.

The star labs team had gotten an alert of a bank's alarm being tripped and so of course Barry had gone in blind because had insisted that he could stop the girl using speed.

After five minutes of hearing Barry talking to the meta he had gone suddenly, worryingly silent. Caitlin called Barry's name over the mic again and looked over at Cisco who had his hands clasped nervously in front of him.

"Whatever happened can't be that bad, all the bank robbers done so far is confuse people right? Mess with their heads? Maybe Barry's just busy tying her up or something."

The monitors started beeping, startling both Caitlin and Cisco as Barry's vitals started erratically spiking and dropping before finally leveling out.

"Caitlin, his earpiece is offline! We have no way of speaking to him."

Dr Snow was becoming increasingly more worried. If Barry was hurt, as his spike in vitals suggested, they would have to get him back to the lab without clashing with the bank robber. Evading a tween criminal should be easier than it was but they just didn't know what they were dealing with. The only good side of Barry being affected by the girl was the opportunity to see what her abilities were.

Now that the com's were offline Cisco had The Flash suit's GPS tracker on the main monitor. The red marker was still on the map of central city, still in the bank until suddenly it was flicking all over the place. It looked like Barry was literally bouncing off the walls of the bank until finally it zoomed its way out of the bank and down the street.

"He's heading straight for home, to Joe's house."

The red dot stopped on the familiar point on the map and the two scientists looked at it, confused as to why their friend went home instead of coming back to the lab.

"Why is he?-" Cisco was interrupted by a phone ringing and the mechanical engineer picked it up before it rang again.

"Yeah? Joe? Okay, drive him over here then. What do you mean he doesn't want to? Okay fine we'll be there in ten minutes."

He hung up and turned to Caitlin.

"Joe says Barry hurt his hand but he doesn't want to come here so we're gonna have to go over. He also said Barry's acting weird."

Dr Snow wanted to ask questions but figured they could wait till they got to the West residence and started packing supplies.

…

Cisco paused before knocking on the door. There was yelling coming from inside and it was not the usual argument either.

"Barry sit down! No you cannot have ice cream, do as you're told and sit on the couch till Dr Snow gets here!"

Cisco grimaced and looked at Caitlin like maybe they should come back another time, only just managing to turn his grimace into a smile when Iris opened the door.

"Oh thank god you guys are here, come in."

Iris ushered the two inside where Joe was yelling while surrounded by a familiar looking blur making mini tornadoes around him with his super speed.

"Umm, Barry?" Caitlin put her medical kit on the couch and flinched as the tornadoes turned into a gust of wind that nearly knocked her over as the speedster came to an abrupt stop in front of her.

"Caitlin! I hurt my hand but it's gone now and I can run really fast do you wanna see?" His words came out so fast the Doctor could hardly keep up and then the lighting returned as Barry started running around the house once more.

Joe sighed and rubbed a tired hand over his face before dropping onto the couch.

"Cisco did you bring what I asked you?"

The scientist nodded and pulled out the pizza boxes he had picked up on their way. Joe took them gratefully and called to his adoptive son.

"Barry if you sit down and let Caitlin check you over you can have pizza."

The blur stopped to reveal Barry sitting cross legged on the floor with half a pizza in his hands. The kid looked out-of-his-mind happy with the deal Joe made him. Sensing that keeping The Flash still wouldn't last long, Caitlin quickly grabbed her kit and started checking him over, Cisco checking over the suit as she did.

"Dude why did you take out your earpiece?" Cisco was holding up said earpiece, unsure of why Barry had taken it off if it wasn't broken.

"It was in my ear, it felt weird, I didn't like it." The forensic scientist didn't seem to know why this would annoy Cisco as he stuck a finger in his ear and wiggled it around before grabbing another four slices of pizza.

Cisco made a face and shook his head in disbelief.

"Barry what happened at the bank?" Caitlin couldn't find anything wrong with The Flash, his speed obviously worked and there was no evidence of trauma. His vitals were normal and his cognitive abilities looked fine as did his pupil reaction so his strange behavior couldn't be attributed to a concussion or whammying by any meta-human.

The man shrugged, as he went cross-eyed trying to lick pizza sauce off his own nose.

"The bank robber was tiny and people were running around and some people were crying. I told her she had to stop but she pushed me over and then I woke up and came home. I grazed my hand, it hurt. But it's gone now. Can I have more pizza?"

Caitlin's eyebrows creased as she tried to make sense of Barry's story. Some things weren't adding up, mostly the part about a twelve year old girl pushing over the fastest man alive hard enough to knock him out, if that's what he had meant by 'waking up' before going home.

An idea started sparking at the back of the woman's mind and ignited when Iris pulled the empty pizza box from Barry's lap and started wiping him down with a cloth after he had gotten pizza sauce over his hands and face.

"Barry how old are you?" Everyone looked at Caitlin like she was being ridiculous asking such a random question but Barry only shifted the pizza boxes around looking for more food.

"Twelve."


	2. Chapter 2

Getting Barry to come to S.T.A.R. Labs hadn't been as hard as Iris had thought it would be. It seemed Barry didn't remember much about his life past the age of twelve though he recognized everyone for who they were. Caitlin had wanted to take Barry to the lab to see what was happening and although he had refused at first, it seemed his love for science hadn't diminished and so all Cisco had to do to get the kid to go with them was mention some of the science gadgets that they had.

Getting the overgrown kid to comply with the tests Caitlin wanted to do was another problem but was mostly sorted by telling about the science behind whatever test they were doing. Iris just smiled at how big of a nerd her best friend was.

"Okay so, everything looks normal except the brain scan shows that areas of his brain have been affected by whatever the meta-human did to him."

The Doctor pulled up the image of the brain scan on one of the monitors and was excitedly pointing out areas of interest.

"His temporal lobe has shown signs of decreased activity. This part of the brain controls his sense of identity as well as behavior and emotions and memory. I believe that this meta-human causes Barry's mind to revert to that of a twelve year old using electrical impulses to block certain pathways and neurons in the brain. I'm not quite sure why it lasts so long after ceasing contact with the meta-human but it's certainly handy in causing a distraction."

Joe crossed his arms and tried to understand everything that the doctor had said.

"It's not permanent though right? He's not brain damaged or anything?"

The woman suddenly realized that not everyone would be as excited about the brain scans as her.

"Oh, no of course not, it should wear off eventually. The other victims returned to normal after about a week but I'm not sure how long it will last for Barry with his speed healing and everything. But he'll be fine."

She still looked excited and Cisco laughed.

"Sorry, Cait just gets overly excited about this stuff sometimes."

Caitlin looked at her lab partner in disbelief.

"Of course I am! If this meta-human can control all brain waves and neurons then imagine the good we could use it for? Alzheimer's, dementia, traumatic brain injuries! This could be the start of a future where-"

"I'm bored." Barry, of course interrupted the scientists rant, making Joe laugh a little and also made him a little relieved. He had to listen to hours of science stuff he didn't understand every day and sometimes it just got too much for his brain to handle.

"Okay kid, we can get going soon." The cop looked to Caitlin who nodded.

"Yeah he can go home."

"Thank you Dr Snow."

Cisco looked a bit worried as he gestured to where Barry was playing with the medical equipment.

"Just make sure you keep an eye on him and don't let him do anything Flash related."

Iris tutted at her best friend and took the stethoscope that he was using to listen to his tummy.

"How hard could it be to look after a 12 year old in a 25 year old meta-humans body right?" She did not look amused as she took Barry's hand and led him from the lab to the car.

Cisco could just hear Barry mention a race to the car before sparks flew from where the boy once stood leaving Iris furious.

"BARRY!"

By the time they got Barry back home he was sulking.

"I want to go running and do superhero stuff."

Joe shook his head and gave his best stern look which wasn't hard since he used it on Barry all the time anyway.

"You're staying at the house with us today and I don't want any arguments about it, now go upstairs and change out of your Flash suit."

Iris laughed at Barry as he crossed his arms and pouted.

"I don't want to."

"Barry Allen you march up those stairs right now. One…"

The boy sprinted away up the stairs before Joe continued counting.

"What were you gonna do when you got to three?" Iris would have liked to see what happened when a speedster was grounded but her father only shrugged.

"I have no idea."

Barry was done in a few seconds and suddenly appeared on the couch with a can of coke and a pile of comic books and looked annoyed when Joe strapped a watch-like device to his wrist.

"What's this?"

"A tracker from Cisco and Caitlin so they can check your location and some basic vitals at all times. Don't think I forgot your tendency to run away and no super-speeding in this house young man."

Iris came to sit on the couch beside Barry as he fiddled with his new accessory.

"Sooo Barry what's up?" She couldn't help laughing at the clothes he had picked out. A nerdy superman t-shirt with some blue shorts that she didn't know he owned and of course his high-tops.

"Why are my legs so long? I'm really tall." Iris smiled at him as he stretched his limbs in front of him marveling at their length.

"You're bigger than you remember Barry." The kid smiled back at her, the sort of smile that crinkled his eyes and made his cheeks flush red the tiniest bit. She loved it when he smiled like that.

"You're really pretty Iris. You're bigger too." Iris blushed.

"Thank you Bar." He went back to reading his comic books and Iris decided that while it was weird that her best friend had a child's mind, it was nice to see him so happy and unburdened by all the responsibility he had as an adult. Normal Barry had the weight of the city, and occasionally, the world on his shoulders. He vowed to keep everyone in Central City safe with his Flash powers and when he wasn't super speeding around he was helping solve cases as a CSI.

She was so proud of her Barry but this younger version was so innocent and although he had seen the darkness of the world when his Mother was murdered and Father sent to prison, he hadn't yet seen all the terrible things that happened because of normal people.

Iris couldn't even remember the last time her Barry read his comic books; he hadn't had time. At least while he was like this he had a chance to be happy.


End file.
